[SPARCbook] SPARCbook 3 SCSI Advice

[Mark Wickens]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the response.

I was just scanning the archive and noticed a post that suggested that
Solaris isn't happy with hard drives that appear at SCSI ID > 3.
However, this wouldn't explain why the external floppy drive caused a
problem, although there again it is being powered over SCSI which might
point to an issue with the particular 3rd party cable I'm using rather
than anything to do with IDs (the floppy drive is set to SCSI id 5). It
might also be the case that the floppy drive is broke.

My current issue preventing me from trying a 'simple' solution
(connectivity wise) is that most of my SCSI devices have Centronics
style connectors, rather than the considerably more compact HD50
connectors. The BA350 is an exception, I can connect that directly, then
daisy change a device with a centronics connector off that using an HD50
to centronics cable. As far as I could tell in that configuration the
chain was correctly terminated with a passive terminator.

My gut feeling would be to locate a SUN branded external CDROM drive
with a HD50 connector to give me the best possible chance of success. It
would be a shame to have to buy another drive, given that I have so many
here now.

Do you think a serial connection on port A might shed some light? I have
a cable that works. My overriding concern now, however, is to not break
the SPARCbook. I don't know whether it hanging on boot (and doing that
after you've removed the cause) is a very bad thing, a bad thing or a
known thing.

Regards, 

Mark.



On Tue, 2010-07-20 at 15:18 -0700, stephen price wrote:
> haven't had a sparcbook3 in a while - but it sounds like a scsi buss issue
> 
> 1) termination on disk pack?  none / active / passive ?
> 2) scsi id of the various devices you are trying to attach?
> 
> regards
> steve
> 
> --- On Tue, 7/20/10, Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk> wrote:
> 
> > From: Mark Wickens <mark at wickensonline.co.uk>
> > Subject: [SPARCbook] SPARCbook 3 SCSI Advice
> > To: sparcbook at sunhelp.org
> > Date: Tuesday, July 20, 2010, 4:50 PM
> > Hi,
> >
> > My first post to the list. Hope someone is listening ;)
> >
> > I have a SPARCbook 3 and just bought an Apple HDI30 to HD50
> > external
> > SCSI cable, with a view to trying the external SCSI floppy
> > drive that
> > came with the SPARCbook but more importantly attaching an
> > external hard
> > drive and CDROM so that I may backup the machine and
> > install Solaris
> > 2.6.
> >
> > When I attach the cable at the SPARCbook end and leave the
> > other end
> > disconnected the SPARCbook booted fine. When I attached the
> > other end to
> > an external disk pack that was turned on prior to the
> > SPARCbook booting
> > the screen went from black to white but did not display the
> > SPARCbook
> > logo. It appeared to still be functioning - if I typed
> > PAUSE-A then
> > 'boot disk' the machine booted.
> >
> > I tried various combinations of drives but for the most
> > part the
> > SPARCbook hung. Alarmingly this also happened afterwards
> > when the cable
> > was completely disconnected. However, after being left a
> > while it did
> > boot and after a 'reset' it appeared to behave itself.
> >
> > Is this normal behaviour? I'm trying to narrow down what
> > the issue is
> > *without* damaging the SPARCbook, so any advice is greatly
> > appreciated.
> > Is it worth me attaching a serial console to port A to see
> > if there are
> > any diagnostics being issued?
> >
> > BTW - none of the peripherals I connected were
> > SUN-specific, in fact
> > they were an external generic SCSI hard disk enclosure and
> > a DEC BA350 3
> > drive canister external housing. I was able to do a
> > probe-scsi when the
> > BA350 was attached and a list of the drives attached, but
> > that was not
> > repeatable.
> >
> > Thanks for the help,
> >
> > Mark.
> > _______________________________________________
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